Maureen, those photos are stunning! I just LOVE the last one...with every red feather in her crest standing straight up! The detail is amazing! We have a pair around here, but I've never had one of them come to the birdbaths. I've been really trying to entice my birds back, and yesterday, I put out new feeders and fresh food. Shortly afterward, I had a pair of mourning doves feeding on the ground under a feeder, and they hadn't been there 2 minutes when out of nowhere, one of my resident red-shouldered hawks shot down to try to nab one. He missed, but then he flew to the top of my Bali hut and wouldn't move. I finally had to aim a jet of water at him to chase him off. Five minutes after he left, the doves were back, and a pair of cardinals, as well. Plus, I have a CATBIRD eating SEED at my feeder now! I've never seen that before in all my birdwatching years. You just never know what you are going to see when out in your garden, do you? Our little attempts to create a private spot of nature often succeed beyond our expectations. Thanks for sharing. These might be my very all-time favorites of your bird pictures. Marcia

i get a variety of different woodpeckers here. In the winter when there are not bugs and insects and ants and worms for them to eat they switch to seeds and suet and nuts and dried fruits. you can put nuts or bird seed mix in a tray or platform hung in a tree or from a shepards hook. You can mix your seed and nut mix in some lard and peanut butter and press it into a suet cage. I also have several pine logs about 3 foot tall that i stand on end and the birds land on the stumps and eat from them. i also have a pan of seeds and nuts on the back porch rail that the woodpeckers and chickadees and siskins land on and eat I have one flicker woodpecker that hangs from a feeder and eats millet and cracked corn. Some people mix bird seed or nuts or rainens in chunky peanut butter and press it into holes drilled in a hanging branch and call it a suet log. In early spring the young Lewis's woodpeckers i get eat the Jelly and jam from a bowl i put out for the orioles and tanagers. i make a mix of lard and peanut butter and nuts and mixed bird seed thickened to a stiff ball and press it into the suet cage and hang it out in winter for the downey and he hairy woodpeckers. This winter there is a red naped sapsucker hanging around that loves suet mix flavored with molasses or sorgum pressed into the woodpecker block cage. the flickers especially in spring and summer eat on the ground and cleanup spilt seeds and nuts from the feeders.

Donna: Very nice pic of the red-belly practically doing chin-ups to eat from the feeder. Those aren't perches, they're grab bars. You're really getting the hang of your digital camera, so we expect lots more photos. Claire

When you all talk about suet, do you mean the packaged gooey stuff that goes in the square green wired baskets, or the bell-shaped thingy with seeds all over it? Or something enrirely different?? Terrene, what is a log? Can you post a picture of what you all are talking about? Oh, and I did see the woodpecker yesterday evening, but not at my feeder. He (actually she) was flying from one tree to another. It was funny watching her. On the tree she stopped at, she landed on the trunk and hopped backwards (down the trunk) and then after a little pecking, hopped back upwards.